The way he changed, Inversion
by Acalanthis
Summary: The collar of his shirt was already soaked with cold water and still Yugi kept splashing the icy liquid onto his face and scrubbed viciously. Yugi Mutou standing in this very bathroom after having been in a fight was a regular occurrence. [AU]


**Disclaimer:** I do not own or claim to own Yu-Gi-Oh! Or any characters and situations presented in the manga/anime. No profit is gained from the publishing of this story, no copyright infringement intended.

Should this story be deemed offensive by the creator, Mr. Takahashi, his solicitors or any of the (unsettling amount of) companies holding licenses to the series it shall be of course taken down without hesitation.

**A/N:** A word of warning before you go and hit the review button to flame me: I happen to be fully aware of the fact that Yugi isn't as tall as Jou or Honda, nor is he - in the actual show - as strong as they are. I also know that his eyes are not crimson colored but rather a shade of purple. You will find upon reading that my description of Yugi is not at all corresponding with the original character, not even personality-wise.

That's because this is an AU (Alternate Universe).

I thought: how would different could the series be if not 'Yami' was the Spirit of the Puzzle, but rather 'Yugi' and this is an attempt to describe just that.

Description of the boy's bathroom is courtesy of years spent watching "21 Jump Street" and drooling over Johnny Depp, Richard Grieco and Mr. Nguyen, whose first name I presume to be Dustin for some reason but which I unfortunately forgot.

This is going to be a story in 3 parts.

Please enjoy 'The way he changed – Inversion' Part I and if you feel like it, do leave a review. Constructive criticism is (as always) appreciated and encouraged and shall be cherished forever.

Much love & insanely yours,

Acalanthis

**The way he changed – Inversion**

This chapter was beta-read by SightX, who also encouraged me to post it because she didn't see any reason why I should be worried about doing so. I guess you liked what you read, ne, Eddie?

Part I

The boy's bathroom in Domino High's basement was many things. During breaks it would turn into a mixture of trading post and bar, when some of the more shady students would gather together for a quick smoke, or to share the occasional bottle of alcohol secretly. Homework and lunch money were exchanged for safety, while secret photos of the cheerleading squad in the shower were traded for those of the gymnastic team getting changed. Sometimes, the one or other couple would hide in one of the tiny stalls for a quick, not-so-romantic (and not so comfortable) interlude, unfazed by the wild rounds of applause they'd receive upon leaving for the next lesson.

But the basement bathroom was also a sanctuary, a place to hide from other students or teachers during lessons because for some reason, no one ever bothered looking there. Maybe it was because you had to walk through the dark basement corridor (the lamps hanging from the ceiling had been broken for years now and the janitor had yet to care enough to bother and change them) in order to get there or maybe because no one cared; whatever it was, right now Yugi Mutou couldn't care less. He had picked this particular bathroom because he knew he'd be undisturbed here.

The collar of his shirt was already soaked with cold water and still Yugi kept on splashing the icy liquid onto his face (which hurt) and scrubbed viciously (which hurt even more). With a sigh, he raised his crimson eyes to look at his reflection in the grubby mirror. Jounouchi and Honda had really pulled a number on him this time. He took a not-so-small amount of pride in the fact that half of his injuries had been received only after Honda had managed to hold him down long enough for some of the punches raining down on him to connect, which hadn't been a small feat because Yugi was not only a couple of inches taller than Honda, but also a tad stronger.

He rubbed his stomach gingerly and examined his face. His blond bangs were drenched and stuck to his forehead, particularly to his left eye, which was slowly swelling shut. Another bruise was forming on his right cheek and his split lip had yet to stop bleeding. His face felt numb from pain.

The teenager rinsed his mouth with water, tasting blood. However, a quick check with his tongue assured him that all of his teeth were still securely rooted in place, something he was grateful for as he didn't relish having to visit his dentist more than once a year. With a groan, he ran both of his numb hands through his disheveled hair, taking note of the tiny injuries on his knuckles.

'I'm in so much trouble,' he thought.

Yugi Mutou standing in this very bathroom after having been in a fight and skipping classes was a regular occurrence; so regular in fact, that most of his teachers had decided to put up with it. None of them had ever had any success in coming through to the troublesome teen (although he had to give them credit for trying; they'd tried very hard for the longest time) and eventually, Yugi had been labeled a lost case. However, there was one person that could handle him, one person that would always make him feel ashamed of his actions; for this one person he would try and change, and only for her.

The problem was that so far, his attempts weren't very successful.

Because it was so damn difficult to stay calm or to fight back with words or to ignore any offender, like he'd been told to, like he wanted to, when his horribly short temper got the best of him. Of course it didn't help any that most of the time, he felt he was perfectly at right to become angry and violent towards whomever it was that taunted him. Well, not so much him specifically: he was used to the insults directed at his person, to the smart-ass remarks about the way he dressed or his hair, which was pretty unique. But he'd learned to shrug off names like 'battle cactus' or 'starfish-head' in primary school (which was around the time when they'd started getting old and boring) and they really didn't bother him anymore.

What did bother him was the way how some of his peers talked about his friend.

Yes, singular. Only one friend, one confidant, one ally that would help him tackle the nightmare that was puberty and everyday life. Naturally, he was protective of her. He didn't like it when other people - or boys in general, to be more precisely - talked about her or looked at her as if she were a piece of meat. It angered him because she was more than just a pretty face with a trim and shapely body attached to it. She was smart and kind and funny and always willing to help others and so much more which simply couldn't be put into words because what she was put the limitations of language - every language there was - into sharp relief.

And she'd be terribly disappointed once she saw him like this.

With a frown (to which his facial muscles protested with the sharp, tingling sensation of pain) he reached for his school bag, which he'd flung onto the upturned waste paper basket upon entering, and began to search. He knew that he'd come up empty-handed: he wasn't particularly vain and saw no reason in carrying a comb or brush on him at all times and he wasn't used to carrying around a handkerchief if he didn't have a cold; so of course there was nothing available to straighten his appearance. He could search out the school nurse, but that would mean that he'd have to tell someone what happened and endure a lecture, detention and - worst of all - a telephone call to inform his grandfather of his misbehavior, something which he'd like to put off a little longer.

'Of course,' he thought, 'if only I'd held my temper in check, I wouldn't have to put this off because then I wouldn't be in trouble.'

Yugi shook his head and gave the mirror a speculative look. There was nothing to be done about his injuries, at least not without some band-aids he realized, fixing his gaze to the nastily bleeding cut just above his left eyebrow, which he hadn't noticed before because it had been covered by his bangs (bangs which were normally blond but now the sluggish color of nearly-dried blood where they stuck to his face), but maybe he could improve his hair by combing through it with... well, his hands would have to do for now, wouldn't they? But then he remembered the last time he had attempted that and with a shudder he discarded the thought. Combing his hair with his hands was a measure reserved for times of great desperation and need.

Hiding out in the boy's bathroom after having been in a fist fight did not qualify, he decided.

He was about to pack up and leave when a familiar knock-pattern echoed through the room. Yugi spun around quickly and knelt checking the closed stalls for the feet of a possible audience and nodded in satisfaction.

"The coast is clear. You can come in," he called out. He felt a tiny flutter in his stomach that could have been either guilt or… excitement?

The door opened and closed with a soft click right after his visitor had convinced herself that no one saw her enter forbidden territory. He sighed a little and Anzu Mazaki spun around to look at him. A soft gasp escaped her lips and she covered her mouth with one slender hand while regarding him through wide, sapphire-blue eyes. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

"It's nowhere near as bad as it looks," he said abruptly, breaking the silence. "I mean yeah, it hurts a bit but that's what I get for letting Honda and Jounouchi getting the better of me, right?"

Anzu still didn't say anything. Her eyes darted from his split lip to his bruised cheek and swollen eye; to the blood-matted hair clinging to his eyebrow and tiny cuts and bruises on his hands and finally swept over the torn sleeve and ripped collar of his jacket. The way he held himself indicated that he must have received at least one nasty punch into his stomach or into the general area of his ribcage and before she knew it, she was by his side, dropping her school bag and pushing his from the upturned paper basket to make him sit down on it.

"What have they done to you?" she whispered, cradling the side of his face within her hands.

"It's nothing, honestly, Zu. Don't fret. Jou doesn't hit that hard, you know, and he wouldn't have gotten half of those punches in if Honda hadn't held me down anyway," he said by means of calming her down, but the flashing of her eyes told him he had achieved the exact opposite: Jounouchi and Honda were so going to get an earful, he knew it.

"What happened?" Anzu finally asked and Yugi swallowed hard.

He really didn't want to tell her but eventually, she'd find out what had happened. There had been plenty of witnesses after all. Chances were, she knew already and wanted to hear his side of the story. Maybe she wouldn't be too disappointed if he told her...

"I... Honda and Jounouchi were... talking. About you. To provoke me. I tried to ignore them but eventually they said stuff that I couldn't ignore anymore. I asked them not to talk about you like that," here she gave him a skeptical look and he quickly corrected himself.

"I mean I told them to shut up."

The skeptical look remained firmly in place.

"Alright, so I yelled at them to shut up or else."

Anzu gave a short nod, but frowned a little. He felt a pang of guilt, remembering all those times when he had promised her not to let others provoke him anymore and all those times he'd apologized to her a short time afterwards for breaking his promise.

The last time he'd promised her had been 2 days ago.

"I know it was wrong. I mean they said all that stuff to get a reaction from me and I go and reward them with threatening them but Anzu I really couldn't ignore what they were saying about you; it was degrading and not true and I just couldn't let them run their big fat stupid mouths like that and not do anything against it," Yugi added in a rush.

Anzu's frown struggled to remain in place and he noticed something akin to thankfulness flitter through her eyes. She didn't say it, but she did appreciate his protectiveness, he knew she did.

"Then... we sort of got into a shouting match and tossed around the usual insults and then... then the fighting began," he ended.

He didn't want to give her all the glorious, gory details and she'd hear them more often than she'd like to for the next couple of days anyway (the local gossipers had a way of keeping occurrences like his little spat with his two fellow classmates 'alive' for up to three weeks, sometimes even more; after all, they were still talking about that one time in Ph Ed, when he punched a hole through the locker room door because Jou and Honda had decided on a whim to lock him out and that had been over a year ago).

"Who threw the first punch?" she eventually asked.

Yugi averted his eyes, remembering the remark that had made him lose control.

_'Why don't 'cha let us have a go wit' her, huh, Mutou? Afraid a real man could show yer little pet a good time?'_

"I did."

"Yugi..." she breathed softly, shaking her head.

In turn, he lowered his shamefully, feeling chastised and suddenly, very, very small.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "I swear I tried. I didn't want it, Anzu, honestly. But before I knew it, I hit him and that was the beginning of the end."

"Hit who?" the brunette asked.

"Jounouchi. He was the one..." he trailed off. "Never mind."

He stood and smiled tentatively at her.

"I better go and see the nurse for... you know... stuff."

Her look had him pinned in place and as she knelt to open her bag, he caught sight of a small first aid kit and a brush. He smiled gratefully at her, despite the previously dried up cut on his lip tearing open again as he did so. The cuts were quickly treated (although he had desperately tried to convince her to forego the antiseptic, frowning when she called him a big baby) and his hair was brushed into a resemblance of order (however far fetched this term was).

"Do you want me to come with you?" she asked but he shook his head.

"You've already missed enough classes because of me," he replied. "Go. I'll be fine. I'll call you tonight, alright?"

"Alright."

She gave him a quick (and careful) hug before she left, wishing him luck.

But of course just as he had expected, her wishes were well-meant at best, because the principal was in a rather foul mood by the time Yugi arrived at his office. Apparently, he had somehow managed to break Honda's nose (Yugi considered it payback for the other time, when Honda had broken his, but he didn't say that), which resulted in lots of paper work for the principal, a trip to the hospital for Honda and an official complaint against Yugi - which he had expected - as well as based on it, a three-day-suspension from school - which came as a bit of a shock.

Yugi readily admitted his fault and apologized for his behavior, but did ask for permission to relate his version of the events. If he was going down, he figured, he might just as well take the two that started it with him. Needless to say, the principal wasn't too happy with what Yugi told him (he confidentially admitted that he might not have reacted any different) and two more complaints were filed: one against Honda and the other against Jounouchi.

Then they called the game shop, where Yugi lived, and informed his grandfather of what had happened. All things considered, the old man took everything rather well, but his tone of voice promised further punishment once the teenager got home. Their conversation ended with Yugi apologizing profusely for having caused so much trouble and promising that the next time the principal would hear his name, it would not be because of a violation of school rules.

"I'll hold you to that promise, Mr Mutou," the principal replied and they shook hands on it.

At home, Yugi had to endure a long lecture about how violence didn't solve anything and was informed that he was banned from the TV, his video games, the store (but not the storage rooms in the back of the shop and in the basement), the internet and the telephone until further notice (so much for calling Anzu). He was also grounded for a month - although his grandfather had conceded that should Yugi keep the promise he gave the principal for two weeks, he was willing to negotiate an instant release from the grounding - and had to surrender his Duel Monsters deck. The latter would be returned once the grounding was over.

"Yugi… what am I supposed to do with you?" his grandfather asked him sadly after he had finished his lecture.

"Are you angry?" Yugi inquired.

"No, I'm disappointed, not angry," his grandfather replied but what he wanted to say was: _I'm too tired to be angry_.

"If I were you, I'd be angry. I think I deserve your anger," said the teen thoughtfully, as if he were talking to himself. "I know I'm angry at myself for being so stupid."

Solmon Mutou gave his grandson a long, hard look. He was an old man, and whenever he wasn't daydreaming about the past and the good old times in which he'd been a dashing Indiana Jones-type of guy (minus the whip and handgun) who traveled the world in search for adventure, he was preoccupied with his game shop, in which he earned their living. He loved Yugi dearly, but somehow he had never managed to find the time to just sit down and talk to the boy, to show him that he could always come to him and share his news, thoughts or problems, whatever they were.

As a result, he blamed himself for the boy's obvious lack of social competence and consequently also for the fact that Yugi seemed to get into trouble on an almost daily basis. Solmon was relieved to find that at least the boy seemed to stand up to whoever tried to give him a hard time, although he found this fact rather worrisome, too, because it seemed to him that sometime during his stay, Yugi had become a very angry young man, who sought to solve his problems with his fists rather than his brains, and Solmon was at a loss as to what the source of his anger actually was.

"Yugi," Solmon began and trailed off. Crimson eyes, very much like his son's, looked at him somewhat hesitantly.

"Why are you always so angry?" he finally asked.

Yugi didn't know what to answer and so he shrugged his shoulders. His grandfather sighed as the boy turned and ascended the stairs that led to their apartment.

Once safely within the confines of his room, Yugi slipped out of his torn uniform, opting to wear a comfortable pair of jeans and a plain black shirt instead. He switched on the battered looking red radio on his desk, which was covered with various stickers he'd collected at one point, searching for a song corresponding to his more than bleak mood. He caught the fading strains of Metallica's "Nothing else matters" – a song he would have very much liked to hear right now – which was unfortunately replaced by some cheerful happy-go-lucky tune. He didn't bother listening long enough to find out what exactly it was, changing stations quickly. When he couldn't find a suitable musical background on air, he angrily yanked out the radio's power chord.

The moment the radio fell silent, Yugi regarded the cable in his hand and the spinning plug at its end with wonder. Eventually, he plugged it back in and shut the radio off properly.

It - whatever 'it' was - wasn't the radio's fault, after all.

**- End of Part I -**

**A/N 2:** Well, there we go. The end of Part I. I hope you liked it. As for the teeny-weensy bit of romance that I infused: see 'This doesn't mean anything' for my opinion on guys and gals remaining only best friends (or watch 'Harry and Sally'). I'm a sucker for romance (you know its true) but I'll keep it at a minimum for this story because that's not my main focus.

**To all authors reading this:**

I challenge you to write an inversion of your own! How could the series, the characters or only a select scenes change if for example Seto and Mokuba were Solmon's grandchildren and Yugi would have been adopted as a Kaiba? Could Kaiba turn into the hero if the only other item harboring a spirit (besides the ring) would have been the Millennium Rod and he'd had it from the beginning? What if not Noah was the Kaiba that died, but Mokuba or Seto? What if Anzu and Mai switched places? What if Solmon Mutou and Pegasus were to switch?

Write it down and let us find out.


End file.
